Alan Titchmarsh opens new RHS learning centre
19 April 2011
The Royal Horticultural Society has opened the new Peter Buckley Learning Centre, at RHS Garden Rosemoor in Devon, helping thousands more school children in the region learn about sustainability, the environment, wildlife and plants.
The Learning Centre building, named in memory of the late RHS President, Peter Buckley, was opened on Friday 15 April by renowned gardening broadcaster and supporter of the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, Alan Titchmarsh.
Designed by Devon-based ecological architects, Gale and Snowdon, the building will attract some 7,000 school children a year as well as adult learners and trainees.
The Learning Centre includes an innovative teaching terrace garden, with raised vegetable beds, a sensory garden and dipping ponds, enabling vital hands-on horticultural experience for both pupils and teachers. An indoor practical space and cooking area will be used to teach children how to prepare the food they learn to grow.
The Centre has been designed to be eco-friendly utilising solar energy, rainwater harvesting and an efficient log burning boiler, using logs from the woodlands around RHS Garden Rosemoor, and allowing the building to be self-sufficient.